News Updates

Many people are adopting dogs to help them get through the coronavirus pandemic, NPR reports, offering stories of new owners discovering how their canine companions “can be the unsung therapists of these difficult times.” But, a bioethicist asks in an Issues online exclusive, should pets be animal psychologists? Once the pandemic eases, many of these dogs may well be abandoned completely or left home alone for long stretches—a “crisis for dogs” that means humans “need to be attentive to what it is like for them as well as for ourselves.”

The devastation inflicted by the coronavirus on US prisons and jails is “both a moral failure and a public health one,” the New York Times editorial board writes, going on to examine possible remedies. In Issues, a group of medical experts details the pandemic’s impact on correctional facilities. They argue that a critical step is to unwind mass incarceration, which they call “one of the greatest structural drivers for public health disparities,” by imprisoning fewer people and releasing those already in the system who pose little threat to the community.

With two vaccines showing great promise for warding off coronavirus infections, researchers have looked to the past for lessons in how to promote their timely delivery and widespread use. What they learned aligns with the latest Issues online exclusive, written by eminent international authorities, that called for making vaccines available equitably, according to public health needs; communicating accurately their benefits and potential risks; countering unrealistic promises by politicians and misinformation by anti-vaccine lobbies; and strengthening health services to deal with all challenges resulting from COVID-19.

Millions of Americans can use their smartphones to learn when they have been near someone infected with the novel coronavirus, alerting them to get tested and quarantine themselves. But not many people are using the exposure app, the Washington Post reports, going on to explain how residents in the dozen-plus states that offer the app can activate it. As a broader solution, an Issues online exclusive calls for creating a global nongovernmental organization to lead in developing an app-based contact tracing system that would function across borders while preserving personal privacy and industry competition.

Looking at how COVID-19 has affected US prisons and jails, the Washington Post reports that more than 173,000 incarcerated people nationwide have been infected and almost 1,300 have died, with the rates of both infection and death outpacing those of the general population. Earlier in Issues, four researchers detailed similar evidence that “exposes a broken prison system.” They called for changing the current system of mass incarceration—notably, reducing the number of people imprisoned—to stem the pandemic’s impact on incarcerated populations, correctional staff, and outside communities.

The flood control systems and other components of the nation’s water infrastructure are rapidly aging and increasingly strained by population growth and extreme storms, an official from the National Wildlife Federation writes. But the Water Resources Development Act now being considered by Congress could foster solutions. The legislation incorporates ideas offered by analysts in Issues for how cities, states, and the federal government can use both technical and policy tools to boost the resiliency of infrastructure across various critical sectors to meet the unprecedented weather events expected with climate change.

With global warming showing little sign of slowing, scientists and policy-makers are looking anew at solar geoengineering to cool the planet, especially the injection of aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect some of the sun’s energy into space. But they worry about doing it right to avoid harmful side effects. For help, they can turn to an Issues article by a geoengineering expert and advocate who outlined basic principles to guide research on solar geoengineering, adding that it should be part of a broader research portfolio that includes climate change mitigation and adaptation.